Women in the World Labor Force
Women are severely underrepresented in the global labor market: around 50% of women work or actively seek work for income, compared to 80% for men. If women are treated unequally in the labor market, this is not only an equity concern, but also a matter of economic efficiency.
The United Nations has declared 17 primary goals for the organization, a few of which are principally related to this very issue:
- Goal 5: Gender Equality
- Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
- Goal 10: Reduce Inequalities (Between Countries)
We are Equality Data Investigative Unit, a branch of the UN's gender-focused initiatives. We have been directed to investigate this large gap in the global labor market to determine the background behind it, which countries suffer from it worse, and what are the possible root causes.
Claudia Golden, winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. Golden's work significantly advanced our understanding of gender disparities in the labor market.
A primary focus of her paper was her “U-Curve”, showing women’s labor participation in relation to time (thus, industrial development) in the United States. Building upon her influential findings, our project aims to further explore and understand these gender disparities in the workforce, shedding light on the various factors and challenges that contribute to these differences.
- What are the trends in the gender gap in labor participation rates around the world?
Why? Answering this question will give us a basepoint from which we can guide the rest of our analysis.
- Why are labor market gender gaps so pervasive around the world today?
Why? The common understanding was that with economic growth and development of educational accessibility, the gender labor gap would lessen. We must find out if this is true, to validate our fundamental understanding of this economic principle. If this is not the case, the efforts that follow will guide global action in the correct direction.
- What explains the variation in the size of these gaps over time and across continents?
Across the world we have essentially an infinite number of unique cultures, communities, and values, all resulting in completely opposing factors being at play, even for similar results. This question will allow us to analyze these issues with more locality than at a global scale, giving more accurate analysis.
IN SUMMARY:
Answering these questions is of fundamental importance for prosperity. The allocation of labor is inefficient if workers are not assigned to the jobs best suited to their skills, let alone, working at all. Such inefficiencies lead to large economic deadweight loss on a global scale. Reducing the gender gap in employment and improving the allocation of female talent could thus lead to significant increases in global GDP.
Dataset Description:
The dataset employed in this study is sourced from the World Bank Gender Data Portal, available for download as a CSV file. The original dataset encompasses 305,545 rows and 57 columns, featuring an aggregate of 1153 distinct quantitative and qualitative variables across 265 countries and regions. For analysis purposes, the data has been chronologically arranged from 1991 to 2021 and countries have been categorized by continents. When converted to long format, this dataset consists of over 38 Million rows of categorical numerical data points.
Disclaimer on Gender Representation:
Our research follows Claudia Golden's framework and the World Bank portal's data, both of which use a binary gender definition (female and male). While our study focuses on this binary context, we acknowledge and respect the broader spectrum of gender identities and the importance of gender equality. Our analysis is limited to the available data and does not overlook the value of a more inclusive approach to gender.
